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South Sudan’s government and rebels finalized security arrangements for a transitional administration, paving the way for implementation of a power-sharing deal to end almost two years of civil war in the oil-producing nation.
The agreement permits insurgents to deploy 1,410 security forces in the capital, Juba, and the government 3,420 officers for 30 months, according to a copy of the document distributed Tuesday by mediators from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional bloc.
“This is a special day for the people of South Sudan,” Michael Makuei Lueth, the government’s acting chief negotiator and information minister, told reporters in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. “This is a day when we will start the real operationalization of the peace agreement.”
Fighting broke out in South Sudan in December 2013 after a power struggle in the ruling party led to fighting within the presidential guard and the fracturing of the army. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, which has forced more than two million others from their homes, according to the United Nations.
Killings, mass rapes and burning of villages and other violence in oil-rich Unity state reached unprecedented levels last month, Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Geneva-based relief organization, said on Oct. 30.
Police Force
At talks in Ethiopia both sides also agreed to contribute 1,500 officers for a joint police force in Juba, while the insurgents have been pushing to have an equal number of security forces to the government, said Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, the deputy head of the foreign relations committee for the rebel movement led by former Vice President Riek Machar.
“We have compromised a lot because if you see the balance of forces the government has the upper hand,” he said.
All other security forces in Juba will have to be stationed at least 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) outside the city as part of the permanent cease-fire deal, Gatkuoth said. The number of security forces in the regional capitals of war-stricken Upper Nile, Jonglei and Unity states will be negotiated next, he said. A rebel delegation of about 300 people will visit Juba and state capitals in mid-November as part of the peace process, he said.
According to the agreement signed in August, Machar will resume his post as vice president in the interim government. Because of previous failures to agree on security matters, the start of the transition has been delayed by over three weeks until Dec. 15 at the earliest, Tuesday’s accord said.
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